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Sunday, January 29, 2017

The
search for another world with life in our solar system has arguably become the
most powerful theme in planetary exploration.While microbial life – the most likely form of life elsewhere in the
solar system – itself is likely to be hard to prove with a unified series of
past, current, and planned missions to Mars.NASA is developing an orbiter to investigate the habitability of Europa
and studying a follow on lander to directly search for life.And for the third time in less than a decade,
scientists have proposed a multiple-flyby mission to explore the habitability
of Saturn’s ocean moons Titan and Enceladus.

The
latest proposal, led by European scientists, is called Explorer of Enceladus and
Titan (E2T).It builds on the
experience gained from two less ambitious previous proposals, led by American
scientists, the Journey to Enceladus (JET) in 2010 and the Enceladus Life
Finder (ELF) in 2014.

I
met the principle investigator for the E2T proposal, Giuseppe Mitri
with the University of Nantes, at a conference in December.We discussed his team’s proposal and he has
subsequently provided me we a comprehensive look at the goals and the mission
implementation.In an email to me, he
explained the motivation for the mission: “Enceladus and Titan are two
unique worlds in the Solar System not only in terms of their geology and
evolution but also for their habitability. Flyby missions such as E2T provide
an unprecedented opportunity to explore in detail, surpassing that of Cassini,
two worlds in a single relatively low cost mission”

Credit: Guiseppe Mitri and the Explorer of Enceladus and Titan team

For scientists interested in habitability and
life, Titan and Enceladus are obvious targets for exploration.The Cassini spacecraft, which is nearing the
end of its thirteen year exploration of the Saturn system, discovered that both
worlds have salty water oceans beneath icy crusts.Titan also has a rich stew of organic molecules
in its atmosphere that are deposited on its surface and into its methane-ethane
surface seas.Enceladus conveniently has
plumes jetting samples of its ocean into space. Within the plumes, Cassini’s
instruments have found organic molecules and trace minerals suggestive of
hydrothermal water-rock interactions that could provide a habitat for microbes.

The three proposed missions to Enceladus and
Titan would employ relatively simple spacecraft with just two to three
instruments.They stand in contrast to
NASA’s planned mission to explore the habitability of Europa, another ocean
world.The Europa mission will bristle
with nine instruments, several of which will produce floods of data that
require a high-powered communications system to return the data to Earth.

A key difference between the Europa and the
Saturn moons missions is the prior history of exploration.Europa was explored by the Galileo spacecraft
built with 1970s technology that had a crippled communications system.As a result, NASA’s new Europa mission must conduct
its own comprehensive global study of this world.At Saturn, this initial investigation of
Enceladus and Titan has been conducted by the highly capable Cassini spacecraft
built with 1990s technology.As a
result, the next mission to these moons can focus on a few specific questions answerable
with two to three instruments.

(For those of you who recall that the Galileo
spacecraft explored Jupiter’s system in the 1990s, the completed spacecraft sat
on the ground for almost a decade due to launch delays.)

Two of the E2T spacecraft’s instrument
would focus on in situ composition
measurements.At Enceladus, the spacecraft
can fly through the plumes and directly taste the ocean’s contents.At Titan, complex organic molecules are
carried to the outermost fringes of the atmosphere where the spacecraft can
sample the atmosphere’s chemistry.

The E2T spacecraft’s two mass
spectrometers would sample material during each passage and determine their
composition by “weighing” their constituent molecules.The distribution of the weights of the
different molecules can be interpreted to determine the composition of the
original material.The spacecraft’s ion
and neutral gas mass spectrometer would determine the composition of gasses
while the Enceladus Icy Jet Analyzer would determine the composition of ice,
salt, and dust particles in Enceladus’ plumes.The two mass spectrometers will measure the nature of the organic
chemicals, the pattern of carbon isotopes, the relative abundances of noble
gases, and search for amino acids and abnormal isotope rations in organic
molecules that suggest a biological origin.

The Cassini spacecraft carried versions of
both these instruments, but the E2T instruments would have a forty
to fifty times improvement in resolution (the ability to distinguish similar
molecules) and sensitivity (the ability to measure minute amounts of a
substance) over their predecessors.(NASA’s Europa mission would carry similar instruments to E2T’s
as will Europe’s JUICE mission to Jupiter and its moon Ganymede).

The E2T team has several key
questions that the two mass spectrometers would address.For Enceladus, are the materials in the plume
most likely from its formation or from current geological or biological
processes?What does the composition reveal about the
nature of the liquid reservoir (currently believed to be a global ocean beneath
an icy cap) and its potential as a habitat for life?For Titan, what are the sources of its
volatiles and how they have been subsequently processed?Does the atmospheric composition suggest that
the current atmosphere is refreshed by material reaching the surface from the
deep water ocean?

The E2T’s spacecraft’s third
instrument would image Titan’s surface and the sources of Enceladus’ plumes
(the so called ‘tiger stripes’) in the near- and short-wave infrared.(The instrument’s name spells out TIGER for
the Titan Imaging and Geology, Enceladus Reconnaissance camera.)Titan
is perpetually shrouded in atmospheric haze, hiding the surface from cameras
that image in most wavelengths.However,
spectral windows at 1.3, 2, and 5 microns allow a camera to image the surface
at several times finer resolution than a similar instrument on the Cassini
spacecraft (and also at better resolution than Cassini’s radar images).The images returned by the camera will
address several key questions such as: To what degree are sediments produced
and transported by fluvial and aeolian processes?How have the rivers and seas of liquid methane
and ethane modified the surface?How
does the composition of the surface, revealed by the three ‘colors’ of the
spectral bands, vary?

If the E2T mission is selected as a
finalist in ESA’s medium class competition, the team will investigate whether a
radio science experiment to study the two moons’ gravitational field could be
added.If it is, this experiment will
investigate the thickness and mechanical properties of the ice shell at
Enceladus’ southern pole where the plumes originate.The gravity measurements would also be used
to investigate Titan’s ice shell and the properties of its internal ocean.

The E2T team hasn't release a
description of its planned imaging coverage of Titan's surface or flights through the plumes of Enceladus. However, the similar JET proposal would have imaged large portions of Titan's surface at several times the resolution of Cassini's instruments and flown through the plumes at different altitudes. Credit: JPL/Caltech

JET

ELF

E2T

Neutral
and ion mass spectrometer

X

X

X

Particulate
mass spectrometer

X

X

Infrared
camera

X

X

Comparison
of instruments proposed for the three proposed Saturn orbiters that would
perform multiple flybys of Enceladus and Titan.The E2T team is proposing a more ambitious mission than did
the preceding teams.

If Titan and Enceladus are obvious targets for
further exploration, what is surprising about E2T and its
predecessor proposals is that they were put forward for the lowest-cost class
of missions flown by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA to explore the
planets.

Both ESA and NASA have mission categories for similarly
priced low cost planetary exploration.For the Europeans, this is the Medium class mission program where
missions can be proposed for planetary science, astrophysics, or
heliophysics.For the Americans, this is
the Discovery program that is dedicated to the exploration of the solar system.These programs cap the cost for costs
directly managed by the mission’s principle investigator at €550 million for
ESA and $450M for NASA.(A Euro spent in
Europe and a dollar spent in the United States have similar purchasing
power.)For the ESA missions, the cap must
cover the spacecraft, mission operations, and launch but doesn’t include the
costs of instruments, science teams, or data analysis, which are paid for
separately by individual nations.For
NASA missions, the cap must cover the spacecraft, instruments and the science
team (except those contributed by foreign nations) but doesn’t include launch
or mission operations, which are paid for separately by NASA.(The difference in the way instrument costs
are accounted for by ESA and NASA explains why European mission proposals
typically include more instruments than similar American proposals.For European missions, instruments are off
the PI’s budget.US proposers like to
include foreign instruments paid for by their governments because they again
are off the PI budget.)

Once all costs are added up, these missions typically
cost somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 to 700 million Euros or dollars. However,
this is still only about 60% of the cost of the cheapest outer planets mission
to date, the Juno Jupiter orbiter, at $1.1 billion.(The Juno spacecraft has to survive Jupiter’s
intense radiation levels, which are absent at Saturn, accounting for a portion
of its greater costs.)

Developing a winning proposal for a mission to
Saturn for less than €700 million is challenging.Per the abstract for an upcoming conference,
the JET and ELF missions “were rejected [by NASA] for too-high cost risk.”

The E2T proposal, however,
incorporates the lessons learned from those earlier proposals, and scientists from
the earlier efforts are members of the E2T team.We aren’t privy to all the details of how the
E2T team proposes to fit within the budget cap.This information is a key part of the proposal’s
competitive edge.(The presentation on
the mission supplied to me by Dr. Mitri, for example, has a number of figures
removed because they would reveal too much about key details of the proposal.)However, the team has shared enough
information about the mission to reveal some of the key strategies.

As described above, the E2T would
have limited, focused science goals allowing for a simple, low-cost
spacecraft.Once at Saturn, the
spacecraft would orbit Saturn with six flybys of Enceladus and seventeen flybys
of Titan over 3.5 years.In the weeks between
encounters, the spacecraft would leisurely return each flyby’s data to
Earth.This enables a lower peak data
return rate, which ripples through the spacecraft’s design, lowering mission
costs.Having just three instruments and
substantial time between encounters also reduces the number of mission
controllers needed, again reducing costs.

The E2T team hasn't release a description of its planned orbits around Saturn to explore Enceladus and Titan. However, the similar JET proposal would have used orbits to encounter Titan in multiple locations to allow imaging of different hemispheres. A series of orbits would have provided flights through Enceladus' plumes. Credit: JPL/Caltech

The E2T team proposes to use a
shared launch to a geostationary transfer orbit with another spacecraft such as
a communications satellite.Splitting
the launch cost would save the E2T up to 60 million Euros, or enough
to pay for much of the cost of mission operations on the way to Saturn.This strategy is enabled by using solar
electric propulsion, which allows the spacecraft to propel itself out of Earth
orbit and reach Saturn in just six years.(The JET mission would have required 7 to 8.5 years and ELF ~10 years to
reach the ringed world.)Once at Saturn,
the spacecraft would use chemical propulsion to enter orbit and set up its
encounters.

Further cost savings would come from using
solar power to generate electrical power instead of the more costly
plutonium-powered radioisotope generators.(Although part of the reason for this choice is that ESA lacks the
technology for radioisotope generators and US law prohibits NASA from supplying
one for a foreign spacecraft.)By using
massive solar arrays of 160 square meters (compared to around 70 square meters
for the Juno spacecraft), the spacecraft can create a comfortable 620 Watts of
power at Saturn.While a portion of this
power will need to go to heaters to keep the spacecraft and its instruments
warm (around half of Juno’s power is reserved for this), the E2T
mission would have ample power margins.

The E2T spacecraft would use massive solar arrays to gather enough sunlight at Saturn to produce electrical power. Credit: Guiseppe Mitri and the Explorer of Enceladus and Titan team

It is these large solar arrays that enable the
spacecraft to return the data from mapping Titan’s surface.The ELF mission, by comparison, would have
had smaller solar arrays and would have lacked the power to return imaging data.(The JET mission would have used radioisotope
generators, which would have supplied enough power, and spare heat, to enable the
mapping of Titan.)

The E2T proposal also has another
advantage over its predecessors.If the
mission is selected by ESA, the team would have almost five years to refine the
design before the actual implementation begins.This is more time to fine tune cost savings and to take advantage of
advances in spacecraft technology that have the potential to reduce costs.NASA’s Discovery missions, by contrast, have
to be ready to begin implementation immediately after their selection.As a result, the proposing teams must have
resolved all key design issues at the time of the proposal.

The most encouraging sign for me, though, about
the E2T concept is that the community of scientists interested in
exploring Titan and Enceladus continue to put forth similar if more refined proposals.Preparing for these mission competitions is
time consuming and expensive.If the
budget math wasn’t close, I don’t believe they would keep coming back.Another fact to consider is that in NASA’s
Discovery program, teams often propose missions several times, incorporating
the lessons learned each time their proposals are passed over.The E2T team builds on the
experience of two previous proposals.

If the E2T proposal is passed over,
the Discovery program may hold another lesson.The team behind the OSIRIS-REx mission on its way to do a sample return
from the asteroid Bennu twice unsuccessfully proposed their ideas to the
Discovery program.Their efforts finally
succeeded when they proposed to NASA’s New Frontiers program, which at the time
allowed PI costs of around $800M.NASA
has begun the competition for its fourth New Frontiers mission, and proposals
for missions to Titan and Enceladus are requested (along with proposals for
missions to five other solar system destinations).I expect that at least one mission similar to
E2T, perhaps with more instruments, will be proposed.(We may also see teams used the additional
funding available to propose a sample return from Enceladus’ plumes or a Titan
lander.At the time of the JET proposal,
a Titan lake lander also was proposed for the Discovery program but not
selected.)

ESA will announce the list of finalists for
its competition this June, NASA will announce its list in November.If selected, an ESA mission to Titan and
Enceladus would launch around 2030 while a NASA mission would launch around
2025.These two competitions likely represent
the best hope for fans of these two worlds to see a spacecraft arrive at Saturn
by the mid-2030s.

Friday, January 6, 2017

Earlier this week, Santa in the guise of NASA managers brought the
solar system small bodies science community a sack full of belated Christmas
presents.The Venus science community
was unfortunately left with no presents under the tree.

An artist’s conception of the Lucy
spacecraft flying by the Trojan Eurybates and the Psyche spacecraft in orbit
around asteroid 16 Psyche.Credit: SwRI
and SSL/Peter Rubin

The losers were a Venus mapping mission and Venus atmospheric probe
mission.Their rejection will continue a
drought in NASA launches to our sister world that followed the Magellan
mission’s launch in 1989.When asked why
neither Venus mission was selected, the head of NASA Planetary Science
division, Jim Green, answered that the competition for selection was among
mission proposals and not between destinations.He said that the review teams found that the proposals for the Venus
missions scored less well than the proposals for the selected missions.

Dates for key events in the Lucy and Psyche missions.

Lucy Mission

Encounter date

Location

Dia-meter (km)

Spectral type

Launch

Oct. 2021

DonaldJohanson

April 2025

Main belt

3.9

C

Eurybates

Aug. 2027

Greeks

64

C

Polymele

Sept. 2027

Greeks

21

P

Leucus

April 2028

Greeks

34

D

Orus

Nov. 2028

Greeks

51

D

Patroclus/Menoetius

March 2033

Trojans

113/ 104

P

Psyche Mission

Launch

Oct. 2023

16 Psyche

2030

Main belt

210

M

The Lucy mission, named after the famous humanoid fossil, will survey
two asteroid fossil beds for clues to the early history of the solar system.It will study the Trojan asteroids that share
Jupiter’s orbit, either preceding (the “Greek” camp in L4 Lagrangian orbits) or
trailing (the “Trojan” camp in L5 Lagrangian orbits) the giant planet.Telescope observations suggest these bodies
have primitive compositions, several of which don’t appear to be represented in
our meteorite collections and that haven’t yet been visited by spacecraft.

The planned orbits and asteroid encounters for the Lucy mission.Credit: SwRI

The origin of these asteroid populations is a mystery, and its solution
would tell scientists much about the dynamics of the young solar system.Planetary scientists now believe that the
orbits of the giant planets migrated in toward the sun and then out again soon
after their formation.In the process,
they scattered asteroids and comets hither and thither.Jupiter’s Lagrangian orbits may have been sticky
gravitational traps that caught a diverse sample of bodies that originated from
throughout the outer solar system to its fringes.Another theory suggests that the Trojans
originated in the same region as Jupiter and followed it in its movements and
are therefore samples of conditions where Jupiter formed.Either way – and it’s possible that the present
population represents a mixture of sources – these bodies hold clues to
conditions and processes from the infancy of our solar system.

The most recent planetary decadal survey emphasized the importance of these
bodies by prioritizing a mission to explore them.“Trojan asteroids, at the boundary between
the inner and outer solar system, are one of the keys to understanding solar
system formation.Originally thought to
have been captured from the outer parts of the asteroid belt, Trojan asteroids
are proposed in new theories to have been captured instead from the Kuiper belt
during a phase of extreme mixing of the small bodies of the solar system.In-depth study of these objects will provide
the opportunity to understand the degree of mixing in the solar system and to
determine the composition and physical characteristics of bodies that are among
the most primitive in the solar system.”

The report listed three key questions related to the study of Trojan
asteroids in context with other bodies throughout the outer solar system:

What were the initial stages, conditions, and
processes of solar system formation and the nature of the interstellar matter
that was incorporated? Important objects for study: comets, asteroids, Trojans,
and Kuiper belt objects.

“What governed the accretion, supply of water,
chemistry, and internal differentiation of the inner planets and the evolution
of their atmospheres, and what roles did bombardment by large projectiles play?
Important objects for study: Mars, the Moon, Trojans, Venus, asteroids, and
comets.

The Lucy looks to the New Horizon Pluto mission for two of its
instruments with near copies of that mission’s LORRI high resolution camera and
the RALPH color camera and imaging spectrometer.The
third instrument is a thermal emission spectrometer derived from an instrument
on the OSIRIX-REx asteroid mission.Data
from these instruments will provide information on the processes that shaped
these worlds, their composition, and physical properties of the surface
material such as the average size of particles.Tracking of the spacecraft’s radio signal will provide information on
each asteroids mass and therefore density which provides clues to their
composition and to whether they are solid objects or rubble piles.

The creativity behind the Lucy mission is that its proposers found a trajectory
that over 12 years encounters seven asteroids (two in a binary system).The Lucy mission will encounter its targets
using two large solar orbits that take it out to the orbit of Jupiter to
encounter the Trojan swarms.In the
first of these orbits, it will fly by a tiny main belt asteroid (DonaldJohanson,
named after the paleontologist who led the team that found the Lucy fossil) and
then four diverse asteroids in the Greek population. The next orbit takes it into the Trojan
population for a single encounter with a binary asteroid system whose
characteristics are similar to those of comets suggesting they may be refugees
from the distant outer solar system.After this second long orbit, the spacecraft should have sufficient fuel
for further encounters with main belt and Trojan asteroids in a third orbit if
NASA approves funding for an extended mission.(Each of these extended orbits appear to take approximately six years,
so any encounters from an extended mission seem likely to occur in the late
2030s.)

The Lucy mission will study a variety of asteroids through brief, but
intense flybys.It will be something
like photographing boulders along the roadside while speeding by on a freeway
for later analysis.The second Discovery
mission selected, by comparison, will be like parking your car next to one
especially intriguing boulder for a nearly yearlong examination.

The single destination for the Psyche spacecraft will be the relatively
large asteroid of the same name.This
world is the largest of the rare (type M) metallic asteroids.Psyche could be unique remnant of a class of
asteroids that formed so close to the sun that only metals could condense out
of the early solar nebula and was later flung into the main belt of the
asteroids.Or it could be the inner,
metallic core of a once larger protoplanet that had its overlying layers of
rock and possibly ice blasted off by impacts with other asteroids.

Telescopic observations reveal that Psyche’s surface is 90% metallic
and 10% silicate rock. The spacecraft’s instruments should distinguish
between these scenarios by measuring the composition in detail and looking at
the arrangement of the silicate material. The mission’s principal
investigator wrote me, “If the silicate material is primarily high-magnesian
pyroxene or olivine, then these silicates are likely the remnants of a
crystallizing magma ocean, and indicate that Psyche started as a differentiated
planetesimal and had its mantle stripped, validating the mission’s prime
hypothesis for this body. If the silicates are all primitive chondritic material,
then they were likely added as later impacts, and Psyche may have started life
as a highly reduced metallic body without a significant silicate mantle, or,
the nature of impact flux and its consequences are far more significant than
our current models indicate. The numbers and shapes of craters on Psyche’s
surface may help decipher that story.”The
spacecraft’s gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer (derived from an instrument on the
MESSENGER Mercury orbiter) will help determine the asteroid’s bulk elemental
composition.

Psyche the asteroid won’t be an unchanged relic.Its original surface will have been battered by
numerous impacts over the subsequent billions of years. The hydrated materials recently
discovered on its surface with telescopic studies, for example, are likely to
have been delivered by impacts of other asteroids.It’s possible that by now, the body is a
jumbled rubble pile.The cameras on the
spacecraft (near copies of the cameras that the Mars 2020 rover will carry)
will be tasked with taking the images that will allow geologists to reconstruct
its history.By using filters tuned to
specific wavelengths of visible and near-infrared light, the camera’s images also
will help map the surface’s fine-scale composition.

The planned orbits for the Psyche
spacecraft around its namesake.Credit:
Psyche mission team.

The Psyche asteroid’s sits deep within the asteroid belt at 3.3 times
the Earth’s distance from the sun.(By
comparison Vesta is at 2.6, the asteroid Ceres is at 3, and the Trojan
asteroids average 5.5 times the Earth’s distance from the sun.)To reach this world, the Psyche spacecraft,
like the Dawn spacecraft that has explored Vesta and Ceres, will use solar
electric propulsion to slowly but methodically reach its namesake world.The gentle thrust of its engines will deliver
the spacecraft to Psyche approximately seven years after launch and will allow
it to spiral down to progressively lower orbits.The mission’s planners expect the spacecraft to
orbit as close as 105 kilometers from the surface where the cameras will have a
resolution of 5 meters.

While not yet selected as an approved mission, the NEOCam telescope was
awarded an additional year’s funding to mature its design.For the team proposing this mission, this is
the third time it has vied for selection.It was originally proposed in 2006 and not selected as a finalist and
reproposed in 2010 when it was awarded funding to mature the technology of its
sensors.If the mission eventually is
funded by NASA, it would have two goals.The first would be oriented toward protecting our planet by discovering
a large number of the small (from a few tens of meters across up to a
kilometer), near Earth asteroids that have evaded detection by other means.The second goal would be more scientifically
oriented with the NEOCam telescope expected to also observe more than a million
main belt asteroids and about a thousand new comets.The resulting database would allow sophisticated
analyses on the sizes, compositions, and orbital dynamics of the population of
small worlds.

So far as I can recall, this is the first time that a Discovery mission
finalist has been awarded additional funds to mature its design to be ready for
a future funding opportunity.(Two other
missions from the 2010 competition were also given funding to mature instrument
technologies, but neither were finalists.)NEOCam’s (this is an acronym for Near Earth Object Camera) focus on
small bodies whose orbits lie close to and often cross that of Earth’s places
it at the junction of several of NASA’s programs.From finding and mapping the location of
these objects, there is good science, there is planetary protection, and there
is finding potential worlds for future human exploration or mining.As a result, says NASA’s Green, the additional
funding awarded to mature NEOCam’s design is seen as a strategic investment.

Unfortunately, missions to Venus are not seen as a strategic investment
and both finalists for this planet are simply left as unselected.I was very disappointed to see that neither
was selected.(I had hoped for the selection
of one Venus and one asteroid mission.)I
believe that this world can tell us much about the evolution of terrestrial
planets in our solar system and represents what is likely to be a relatively
common class of larger rocky worlds around other stars.

So for fans of Venus and for all the other solar system destinations,
what are the opportunities for selection of future missions?The European Space Agency is currently reviewing
proposals for its fifth medium class science mission, which would enable
planetary missions roughly the same capability as NASA’s Discovery
program.I know that there is a proposal
for a Venus
mapping mission and a Saturn orbiter to study the moons Titan and
Enceladus.Based on proposals for the
last competition, there are likely to be other missions proposed to study other
solar system bodies including orbiting main belt asteroids.The planetary mission proposals are in
competition not only with each other but also with astrophysics and
heliophysics missions.The selection of
finalists for this competition is expected by June, the selection of the final
winner is expected around 2019 with a launch around 2029.

NASA has just begun the process to select its next New Frontiers
mission, which will have a total budget (likely $1.2 billion or more) 80-100%
larger than the Discovery missions (likely $675 million or more).These missions are selected from a
pre-approved list of high priority missions.For this competition, this list is:

Comet Surface Sample Return

Lunar South Pole-Aitken Basin Sample Return

Titan and/or Enceladus

Saturn Atmospheric Probe

Venus atmospheric probe and lander

Trojan Asteroid Tour and Rendezvous

We don’t know what the selection of the Discovery Lucy mission, which
will study Trojan asteroids, will have on the chances for the selection of a
New Frontiers Trojan mission.The
selection of the finalist proposals is expected in November, the final
selection in mid-2019, and launch by the end of 2025.

Finally, NASA plans – subject to the generosity of the President and
Congress with future funding – to launch Discovery missions approximately every
three years.With the launch for the
Psyche mission in 2023, the 15th mission in this series should launch
around 2026.Working backwards from that
date, we might see the start of the next completion late this decade and selection
of the next mission(s) in the early 2020s.There were many exciting missions proposed for this just completed
competition; many are likely to be re-proposed.And we are likely to see new ideas put forth.

As the selection of Lucy and Psyche shows, these competitions among
scientists result in creative and scientifically rich missions.By the mid-2020’s we should have another two
or more new missions to look forward to.

About Me

You can contact me at futureplanets1@gmail.com with any questions or comments.
I have followed planetary exploration since I opened my newspaper in 1976 and saw the first photo from the surface of Mars. The challenges of conceiving and designing planetary missions has always fascinated me. I don't have any formal tie to NASA or planetary exploration (although I use data from NASA's Earth science missions in my professional work as an ecologist).
Corrections and additions always welcome.